CARE4ME

CAPUS Demonstration Project

The CARE4ME Services program actively navigates and engages persons living with HIV/AIDS by promoting the importance of receiving healthcare and other services. The program’s main purpose is to help improve linkage, use, retention, and re-engagement into healthcare and services. Community health workers serve as a bridge in their communities and available healthcare services.

CARE4ME Services was established to improve health outcomes and reduce the new cases of HIV among African Americans, specifically young men. The program provides culturally appropriate HIV prevention activities and enhances entry into care, as needed in Mississippi Public Health Districts III and V. During the initial phases of the program, forty individuals were trained to become community health workers. Currently, CARE4ME Services provides activities through three distinct programs:

5Voices@6 fosters leadership and empowerment through communication and mobilization intertwined with expressions of art and culture in the reduction of HIV among young men of color. The five interactive sessions are: 1) My Relationship Begins with ME; 2) MY Personal Strengths; 3) MY Time to Talk is Now; 4) MY Community: What’s Really Going; and 5) MY New Beginning: Making it Happen.

The SPOT (Safe Place Over Time) is dedicated to providing services and opportunities to young men that focus on wellness, empowerment, and leadership. Over Time, The SPOT will become a Safe Place for young men to openly discuss issues and challenges to improve their quality of life and to promote the concept of self-worth. Services offered:

Keep It Up! Intervention is an interactive online HIV prevention project tailored to reach young men. There are seven modules that must be completed to become a member of The SPOT. Potential members will participate in the multi-media online program in a welcoming and safe environment.

The Den, aka, Man Cave Room, features a variety of life’s discussions, role-play, expressive dancing and poetry, art (A Time to Shine), and more.

Grooming Room consists of grooming tips for success that includes a barber chair. During a set time, volunteer barbers will come and assist members with grooming needs, haircuts, and conversations on the importance of grooming for success.

Meditation Room is available to our members to help them learn to transform their mind from negative to positive, from disturbed to peaceful, from unhappy to happy. Overcoming negative minds and cultivating constructive thoughts in the purpose for the transforming meditations.